An evaluation on the design of sustainable city furnitures: The case of Baku

Urban furniture has an important effect on supporting urban life and giving identity to cities. In the design of urban furniture, the function of the urban space, the needs of the users, the harmony between the urban texture and the furniture are taken into consideration. However, due to the environmental problems experienced in recent years, the design of urban furniture has a special importance in the ecological understanding that is accepted as a necessity in order to provide healthy and sustainable living conditions in cities. It is seen that urban furniture has been developed with innovative solutions within the scope of environmental design, in addition to the basic design criteria known from the past to the present. Although it can be said that the applications are mostly in developed countries, importance is given to the subject in terms of ensuring sustainability in cities in developing countries. In this context, in this study, it is aimed to present an evaluation that defines the basic criteria that gain importance in urban furniture design in order to support sustainability in the urban environment. Within the scope of the examples examined in the research, it can be stated that urban furniture is designed by considering basic criteria such as "contributing to the improvement of air quality, supporting the use of renewable energy and raising awareness, providing support in accessing information and technological tools". In line with these purposes, the criteria for design and the methods used in practice vary. In the field study, within the scope of the analysis framework developed in the thesis, the quality of sustainable urban furniture in the city of Baku is defined in the context of urban objectives, design criteria and methods used in practice. It is seen that the development of sustainable urban furniture is given importance in Baku, but the diversity in urban furniture design has not been sufficiently provided yet due to reasons such as insufficient infrastructure, financial deficiencies, and inadequacy of trained employees in general. In this context, suggestions for the development of sustainable urban furniture are presented in the study. It is thought that the evaluation presented within the scope of the thesis will contribute by defining the design purposes and implementation methods in terms of the development of urban furniture that produces solutions within the scope of environmental problems in cities.